The Blog of International Judicial Assistance | By Ted Folkman of Pierce Bainbridge

Posts tagged “privilege”

The case of the day is Masillionis v. Silver Wheaton Corp. (C.D. Cal. 2018). The case was for securities fraud. Silver Wheaton was a Canadian corporation whose shares traded on the NYSE. Masillionis claimed that Silver Wheaton had failed to disclose to investors a risk that Canada’s tax authority could reassess its tax liability for profits earned by its Cayman Island subsidiary. Via letters rogatory, he sought discovery of legal opinions Silver Wheaton’s accountants and auditors had received from its lawyers.

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl pleaded guilty to desertion and misbehavior before the enemy at his court-martial yesterday. Apparently the plea came without any agreement with the government, suggesting that Bergdahl is, in effect, throwing himself on the mercy of the military judge (he elected to have his case tried before a judge alone rather than a panel of officers). As you would expect, CAAFlog has expert commentary. I wrote about the case last year mainly because it shared something in common with the Belfast Project case: the defendant had made what amounted to a detailed taped confession to someone other than his lawyer or his priest, namely journalist and film producer Mark Boal; the confession had become publicly known (the tapes of their conversations were…

Season 2 of the excellent podcast, Serial, featured the story of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the American soldier who walked away from his post in Afghanistan, was captured and held for about five years by the Taliban before being released in a prisoner exchange. He is to be tried by a general court martial on charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. For a good explanation of the case from military law experts, you may want to read CAAFLog’s coverage, and in particular, a recent article explaining some of the behind-the-scenes aspects of the Army’s charging decision.